Time tracking

Log time spent on issues and projects, view time reports, and filter entries by user, project, and period.

Redmine’s time tracking module lets team members log hours against issues or directly against projects. Logged time is used for progress reporting, billing, and capacity planning.

Log time on an issue

Record hours spent working on a specific issue.

View time reports

Aggregate and filter time entries by user, project, activity, or period.

Enabling time tracking

Time tracking is a project module. To enable it:

1. Open the project and go to Settings → Modules.
2. Check Time tracking.
3. Click Save.

Once enabled, a Spent time link appears in the project sidebar, and a time logging form appears on individual issue pages.

Logging time on an issue

1. Open the issue

   Navigate to the issue where you want to log time.

2. Find the Log time section

   Scroll to the Log time section at the bottom of the issue page, or click Log time in the sidebar.

3. Fill in the time entry fields

   Complete the required fields (see below).

4. Submit

   Click Save to record the entry. The spent hours appear in the issue’s Spent time total.

Logging time from the project

You can also log time without opening a specific issue:

1. Go to Spent time in the project sidebar.
2. Click Log time.
3. Enter the fields. You can optionally specify the Issue to associate the entry.

Time entry fields

Field	Required	Description
Date	Yes	The date the work was performed (spent_on). Defaults to today.
Hours	Yes	Time spent in hours. Accepts decimal values (for example, 1.5 for 90 minutes).
Activity	Yes	The type of work performed (for example, Development, Design, Testing). Activities are defined by administrators.
Comment	Configurable	A brief note describing what was done. Maximum 1024 characters.
Issue	Configurable	Associates the entry with a specific issue. May be required depending on system settings.
User	No	The user who performed the work. Defaults to the logged-in user. Users with the Log time for other users permission can log on behalf of others.

Administrators can make the Issue and Comment fields required via Administration → Settings → Time tracking.

By default, Redmine prevents logging time on future dates and on closed issues. These restrictions can be relaxed by administrators.

Activities

Activities categorise the type of work performed. Default activities include Development, Design, and Testing. Administrators manage global activities under Administration → Enumerations → Time tracking activities. Project-level overrides allow a project to use a different set of activities.

Viewing time entries

Issue-level spent time

On an issue detail page, the Spent time section shows all time logged directly against the issue. Parent issues also display aggregated totals from all descendant issues (Total spent time).

Project time log

Go to Spent time in the project sidebar to see all entries for the project, filterable by various criteria.

List view

The default list view shows individual time entries with columns for:

• Date
• User
• Activity
• Issue
• Comment
• Hours

You can sort by any column and configure which columns appear.

Report view

Click Report to switch to an aggregated view. You can group by:

• Criteria — user, project, version, category, activity, or tracker
• Columns — year, month, week, or day

The report shows totals in a matrix, making it easy to compare time across team members or time periods.

Filtering time entries

The time log supports a rich set of filters:

Filter	Description
Period	Predefined ranges: today, this week, last week, this month, last month, this year
Date	Custom start and end date
User	Filter by one or more team members
Activity	Narrow by activity type
Issue	Show entries for a specific issue
Version	Show entries for issues in a target version
Project	When viewing the global time log, filter by project

You can export the filtered time log to CSV for use in spreadsheets or billing systems. Click Export above the time entry list.

Permissions

Action	Permission required
Log time	log_time
View time entries	view_time_entries
Edit own time entries	edit_own_time_entries
Edit all time entries	edit_time_entries
Log time for other users	log_time_for_other_users